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Is Marvel on track to win back its fanbase? Perhaps…
Last year was rough for the studio: All three Marvel movies released in 2025 — “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” and “Fantastic Four” — underperformed at the box office. And the marketing campaign for this December’s “Avengers: Doomsday” has been met with a lukewarm reception by superfans and casual fans alike.
That put a lot of pressure on Marvel for its big Hall H panel at Comic-Con this weekend. Usually, it’s a “spike-the-football” moment. This year, Marvel came to sell.
While our reporters said the “Avengers: Doomsday” footage went over well in the room (but of course it did, Hall H is packed with fans who slept on concrete overnight just to get in), it was the announcement of two new films that set the course for what’s next — and whether the former hit-factory that used to churn out $700 million hits like it was nothing can regain its footing.
First there’s Ryan Gosling’s “Ghost Rider,” a character who sells his soul and gets consumed by hellfire. Shawn Levy will direct and Jonathan Tropper is writing the script — the same creative team behind next year’s “Star Wars: Starfighter.”
Then Ryan Coogler announced that British actor David Jonsson, who earned raves for last year’s Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk,” is the new Black Panther in “Black Panther 3.”
Both films will be released in 2028, and both point to a different trajectory for Marvel. Whereas the last couple of years have been populated by “team-up” movies that fell flat with audiences, “Ghost Rider” and “Black Panther 3” very much sound like the kind of single-hero stories that Marvel made its bones on back in the 2010s. Smart move.
And not for nothing, but surely if “Starfighter” was a disaster, someone at Disney would have waved Feige off of getting Gosling, Levy and Tropper back together for a big Marvel movie. Perhaps the early cut of Levy’s “Star Wars” film is inspiring confidence in the halls of Disney?
Plus, early reviews for this weekend’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are spectacular, further boosting Marvel’s stature.
There are still more hurdles to clear, including the box office test of “Doomsday” and that whole “Gen Z doesn’t care about superhero movies” trend that seems to be chugging along. But even Feige acknowledged that Marvel is pulling back and drilling down.
“We always try to focus on quality, but when quantity is so much, you get spread thin,” he told Empire at Comic-Con, confirming that the only Marvel movie to be released in 2027 is the next “Avengers” sequel.
Meet the new Marvel. Kind of like the old Marvel.
Now, on to the rest as we tackle “The Odyssey’s” massive second weekend at the box office, the biggest Comic-Con announcements and more in this week’s Reel to Real column.
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Box Office: ‘The Odyssey’ Drops Just 30% From Opening Weekend as It Crosses $600 Million Globally
Universal/Syncopy’s “The Odyssey” followed up its $123.5 million domestic opening weekend with a historic second weekend.
Earning $87 million, it held its weekend drop to just 30%. That stands among the top 3 lowest second weekend percentage drops ever for a film with a $100 million-plus opening, sitting behind only fellow Universal release “Wicked” with 27.9% and Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” with 28.9%. Combine that with an overseas second weekend of $128 million, and Christopher Nolan’s film stands at $639 million worldwide.
And that’s not the only encouraging sign for “The Odyssey.” According to PostTrak surveys taken this past Friday, the film had a gender split of 52% male and 48% female, evening out from the 59/41 opening day split skewing towards males. This suggests that “The Odyssey” is gradually expanding beyond its initial core demo of men under 35, which is a good sign as it prepares to compete against the four-quadrant mega blockbuster “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” next weekend.
How “The Odyssey” does next weekend will go a long way in determining how well it legs out through the month of August. But even in the worst-case scenarios, the film is a lock to hit $1 billion worldwide. The question now is whether this strong start can withstand “Spider-Man” enough to allow it to pass “Deadpool & Wolverine” as the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.
In a distant second and third are Disney holdovers “Moana” and “Toy Story 5,” two films with very different fates.
“Moana” crossed the $100 million domestic mark in its third weekend with $10.7 million, but is going nowhere in most overseas markets with a global total of just $228 million against a production budget of at least $200 million. While passing the worldwide total of “Snow White,” this remake will be left as one of the biggest flops of the year.
“Toy Story 5,” on the other hand, now stands as the highest grossing film of the year so far, passing $1 billion worldwide as it added $10 million domestically in its sixth weekend. With $1.02 billion worldwide, it passed the global totals of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Michael” to take the top spot on the annual charts, though it is expected to be surpassed by “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in the coming weeks. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
Go inside Comic-Con and Marvel’s Hall H panel with Casey Loving and Umberto Gonzalez, as they report on whether Marvel did enough to win over fans with its “Avengers: Doomsday” cast flex and new announcements. Come for the analysis, stay for the man-on-the-street interviews with convention-goers about how they really feel about “Marvel fatigue.” Read the full story here.
New Releases
Doom: Here’s our rundown of the “Avengers: Doomsday” footage that was shown at Comic-Con.
The MCU’s Future: Marvel’s big Comic-Con announcements? Ryan Gosling is teaming with Shawn Levy for a “Ghost Rider” movie and David Jonsson is the new Black Panther. Ryan Coogler’s sequel hits theaters December 2028.
LA Production Update: Despite new tax credits, FilmLA’s recent study shows on-location production dipped 12% in the second quarter.
Shot on Film: Jeremy Fuster wrote about how Christopher Nolan has used his clout to build excitement around analog film formats.
Nicolas Winding Refn Resurrected: Drew Taylor had an eye-opening chat with Nicolas Winding Refn about his new film “Her Private Hell,” which he says he could only make after he literally died.
Limiting 70mm: Here’s why Imax isn’t jumping at the chance to build a lot more 70mm Imax projectors after “The Odyssey” success.
Imax Earnings: Speaking of, Imax pulled in $103 million revenue in the second quarter.
Concession Stand
No ‘Barbenheimer’ harmony: Disney is going on the offensive to convince fans to watch “Avengers: Doomsday” instead of — not in addition to — “Dune 3” on their head-to-head release date.
Comic-Con also debuted the first trailer for Mattel and Apple’s “Matchbox” movie starring John Cena. Yes, based on toy cars.
Johnny Depp is doing his thing again in the first trailer for Ti West’s “Ebenezer,” which Paramount will release this holiday season.
The Cinerama Dome lives! Sony to the rescue — but there’s an Alamo Drafthouse twist.
Tom Holland’s next project? That Fred Astaire biopic for director Paul King and Sony.
The Dream Team is back together: Richard Linklater will direct Glen Powell in a Lou Gehrig biopic for Universal. Simon Rich wrote the script.
Jonathan Levine will direct Tom Cruise in “Days of Thunder 2.”
RIP Chuck Russell, director of the seminal Jim Carrey film “The Mask.”
Elon Musk says he’ll use AI to make a “historically accurate” version of “The Odyssey” by year’s end. You sure about that, buddy?
Streaming Corner
- It’s not “KPop Demon Hunters” numbers, but “Swapped” has entered Netflix’s all-time Top 10 most-watched movies list. The Skydance Animation production stars Michael B. Jordan and Juno Temple as body-swapped birds and first hit the streaming service in May.
What I’m Watching
After some light bullying from friends and colleagues I finally started watching “Slow Horses.” You were all right. It’s terrific.
